Mike has been a freelance writer since his first publication, "Publishing Fever," in 1980. Today he has more than 300 publications in all media: books, newspapers, and magazines, a radio book review program, television and radio advertising, and has written for online publications. He has published reviews, poetry, short stories, essays, and lots of Shakespeare scholarship.
Regular assignments were From Our Biblio-Files on KJAZ-FM, two years as the travel bibliographer for Incentive Magazine, and three years as the Shakespeare reviewer for Small Press magazine. Mike now writes the "Talking Books" column for Shakespeare Newsletter. In 2017 he was invited to become a General Editor of the "Recreational Shakespeare" series of books for ARC Humanities Press.
His work is widely cited in books and journals including the books Shakespeare and the Moving Image and Hamlet on Screen, Filmfax magazine, and the journal Post-Haste. His poetry has been published under three different versions of his own name plus the names Paul Michaels, J. M. Jesson, and Billy T. Jacobs.
Click here for a list of all Mike's publications
This is just for Mike's records, but you may Click here for his past media appearances
Mike's Books
Alzheimer's: The Answers
You Need,
Co-authored with Helen D. Davies.
Co-authored with Helen D. Davies.
This is the first guidebook to help newly
diagnosed patients get through the next few years of their lives. Mike
and Helen appeared on many radio and television shows in North America and made personal appearances to support the book. The science in this book is now badly out of date, but the psychology and encouragement to patients remains solid.
Elder Books, 1998
Click here for more about Alzheimer's: The Answers You Need
A publication of the Graduate Medical Office, this book orients new residents and interns to Stanford Hospital. The book explains the pleasures and problems of living in the San Francisco Bay Area and commuting to work, nearby resources and communities, getting around the area, and the policies and procedures to successfully navigate training at Stanford Hospital. Mike took a version that was several years old and gave it a thorough updating and revision.
The Battle of the Bard: Shakespeare on U. S. Radio in 1937
Published by Amsterdam University Press in 2019, this book studies the competition between CBS and NBC radio to identify themselves with Shakespeare by airing competing adaptations of his plays. It also surveys Shakespeare radio broadcasts in the U.S. prior to 1937 in some detail with additional notes on broadcasts after the Battle of the Bard.
Amsterdam University Press, 2018
Click here for the publisher's website
Click here for a review
This book collects the first 24 "Talking Books" interviews. The scholars interviewed include Sir Stanley Wells, Sir Brian Vickers, Sir Jonathan Bate, Jill L. Levenson, Alan C. Dessen, John W. Velz, Anne Barton, Peter Holland, Ann Thompson, George T. Wright, Lois Potter, Andrew Gurr, Katherine Duncan Jones, and many others.
McFarland and Company, 2019
Click here for the publisher's page
Mike Contributed Chapters to These Books
Backstage by Evalyn Hansen
Two interviews with Mike's are reprinted in this 2022 book which collects all of Evelyn Hansen's "Backstage" newspaper interviews, The book is a nearly complete picture of the performing arts in Ashland, Oregon for two decades starting in 2009. Included are Mike's thoughts on Shakespeare in modern culture from 2010 and the so-called authorship question from 2011.
Click here for more on this book.
Shakespeares After Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of the Bard in the Mass Medio and Popular Culture is edited by Richard Burt.
This two-volume reference work was published in 2007. Mike is one of thirteen contributors, writing over 700 entries about Shakespeare on the radio and in comics.
Greenwood Press, 2007
Click here to see the publisher's page for this book
Shakespeare Survey 61
"'Lend Me Your Ears:' Sampling BBC Radio Shakespeare."
This article takes a case study approach to survey the work of three BBC directors who produced Shakespeare for the radio as a means of understanding the various broadcast approaches taken by the BBC.
Cambridge University Press, 2008
Click here for the publisher's page
Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio: The Researcher's Guide
"Henry V (1976)," "The Wars of the Roses (1965)," and "Julius Caesar (1950)"
Mike contributed these three very short essays describing worthwhile radio and television productions of Shakespeare from the U. S. and England.
British Universities Film and Video Counsel, 2009
Click here for the publisher's page
The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts
Mike surveys comic books world-wide looking at Shakespeare adaptations, manga, allusions, quotations, paraphrases, and concludes with a look at Shakespeare as a comic book character.
Edinburgh University Press, 2011
Click here for the publisher's page
Shakespeare Survey 65
"A Midsummer Night's Dream on Radio: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Radio Series" looks at the history of the OSF series as seen through three versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a 1951 broadcast of King Lear. Mike finds that the radio show helped the small-town theater become the self-sustaining Festival it is today.
Cambridge University Press, 2013
Click here for the publisher's page
Shakespeare Survey 69
"The Noble Romans: when Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra Were Made Sequels," is a study of a 1979 BBC World Service series that recreated these plays as the saga of Marc Antony and the historical moment that encouraged it.
Cambridge University Press, 2016
Click here for the publisher's page
The Shakespearean World edited by Jill L. Levenson and Robert Ormsby
This book looks at the ways Shakespeare is represented in the world today. Thirty-six top scholars contributed chapters on a wide array of subjects. Mike's chapter makes the case for performance scholars to take audio Shakespeare as seriously as they do productions for stage and screen. As he demonstrates, audio is a vital record of great performances and an important part of performance history.
Routledge, 2017
Click here for the publisher's page
Shakespeare Survey 78 edited by
Emma Smith and Michael P. Jensen
Emma Smith is the overall editor on
this issue on "Shakespeare and Communities.
Mike edited 5 articles on audio Shakespeare, contributing one called "Thomas Middleton
on BBC Radio," expanding the field to include
one of Shakespeare's contemporaries for the first time. .
Cambridge University Press, forthcoming
Click here for the publisher's page
Mike also contributed to two forthcoming books
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare edited by Alexa Alice Joubin. Mike wrote the entries for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The American Shakespeare Center, and a history of audio Shakespeare worldwide. Some of the book's content is already online and available by subscription, and that includes Mike's entries. A bound book will follow when it is complete. Click here to access the website.
Editorial Work
Shakespeare Survey 78, forthcoming
Shakespeare Newsletter
Mike has been a Contributing Editor for Shakespeare Newsletter for 25 years. This essentially means that he has written a column since 2001 called "Talking Books" where he interviews prominent Shakespeareans about important books on Shakespeare, his theater, and his times. He also consults as an unofficial member of the editorial board and sometimes recruits articles and reviews in consultation with editor T. J. Moretti. See the "Shakespeare and Me" page for details.
Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation
Mike guest-edited a special section about Service Shakespeare. See the "Shakespeare and Me" page for details.
The Recreational Shakespeare Series
Mike, Jeffrey Kahan, and Eric S. Mallin were the three General Editors of the Recreational Shakespeare series of books published by Amsterdam University Press. It was their job to recruit books and writers for the series. See the "Shakespeare and Me" page for details.
Click this "Shakespeare and Me" link for more about that part of Mike's career.